The Present in Plain Text

Is that a Nuke in Your Pocket or Are You....

The E-E has a brilliant post on why the Canadians should develop a nuclear weapons program.

The problem for Canada is that we have no way of threatening anything to the U.S. in order to obtain speedier and fuller compliance by the U.S. with the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, with the North American Free Trade Agreement [NAFTA], and the decisions made by the WTO. The best we can come up with is, "If you don't stop hurting our beef industry, we'll just have to.... we'll just have to .... well, we'll think of something."

Why do I get visions of South Park running through my head.

"Die, Canadian Scum!!!"

Honestly, his analysis of the American mercantilist system is spot on, and the idea of Canada raising the stakes to combat U.S. plundering of their resources is not a bad one.

However, I'm uncomfortable with nuclear weapons as the mechanism. Really all the Canadians have to do is dump their Central Bank Reserves onto the market and put the Cando back on a Gold Reserve System. That would do the kind of real damage that could topple the U.S. Political Machine.

The real WMD's are sitting in the Central Bank Vaults of just about every country in the world. And, so far, the threat of them has not been enough of a deterrent. Methinks it's time for a warning shot or two.

Ta,

Elf? This Sounds More Like a Dwarf Name to Me.

From JT comes this little nugget of morning fun. Enter your name at the URL above and it will (supposedly) elf-ify it for you.

My good friend the IrishOne will definately enjoy this.

My crappy little elf name is Thom Granitebottom.
What's yours?
Powered by Rum and Monkey.

Hmm... so do you think re-naming this blog Being Thom HardAss would be more appropriate?

Ta,

Johnny Cochran Dead

Apparently his heart had shrunk to the point where it would no longer pump blood.

Good Riddance.

Ta,

Follow Up: More Non-Academic Poets of Yore

In response to my article at LRC yesterday I got some very interesting (and almost exclusively positive) e-mails. Only one took me to task for an oversight and the writer, Tom White, made a very salient point that I felt needed to be shared here (and this e-mail is being reprinted with his written permission):

> Dear TL: You deal rightly with the flight of poets and writers to academe and the dreadful effect of that on writers and our literary art generally. Could wish you had mentioned the incomparable Ezra Pound, who, after a brief stint teaching at a college in the Midwest (from which he was dismissed, as he said, largely because he was the "Latin Quarter type"), never worked at a college, or even at any job, the rest of his life. Called Harvard, e.g., the "beanery back of Boston." Now he has ended up as the subject of endless theses in academies worldwide, which is precisely what he predicted. We have a little "po group" here in Odessa-Midland Texas: about six of us. Absolutely no public support, and we are all as old as the hills, but I have come to feel that somehow we honor the Muses, and I think some of the work coming forward is good if modest. Keep em flying.

Tom White

As I explained in my reply I should not have said that Wallace Stevens was the ONLY non-academic major poet of the 20th Century, but rather a rare example thereof. My excuse was, feebly, that I am a bigger fan of Stevens than of Pound. This is not any kind of excuse for that type of inaccuracy.

I haven't read any Pound in years, and maybe I should re-visit him as an older/crazier man. Ezra to me has existed only as T.S. Eliot's proof-reader/editor. Without his ruthless excisions "The Waste Land" would probably be better known as "The Waste of Time."

Thanks Tom for bringing this up.

Ta,

The Avalanche or Tip of the Iceberg?

The Chevy Avalanche is a butt-ugly automobile if you haven't noticed. It's big, unwieldy, has too much plastic cladding, only salable with deep discounts, and has styling suggesting a misplaced sense of agggression. I drive by a Chevy dealership everyday and at multiple points last year I saw them being discounted as much as $7000 (!!), a nearly 22% discount.

In my mind they stand as a symbol of everything that is wrong with GM and the U.S. Financial system in general. The link above is to an article at Kitco by Jason Hommel, publisher of the Silver Stock Report, about what the recent spike down in the price of GM stock means in a broader sense. Honestly, I got less than halfway through before I started writing this piece.... because unlike most people 'educated' in government schools, I can do math and the two most important numbers Mr. Hommel mentions are

GM Market Cap = $USD 16 billion
GM Debt = $USD 300 billion.

So, if GM defaulted on this debt (which it can't possibly repay) how much of a problem would this be?

It's bigger than Enron, Global Crossing, LTCM, K-Mart, and the IRAQ war all put together!

They are set to lose $1.50/share this quarter alone, and the Fed just raised interest rates again, making it even harder for them to service that mountain of debt. It's been well-known for years that GM makes more money financing debt than actually selling cars. By the looks of the cars they produce is it any wonder?

I'd read the rest of the article only if you have a really strong stomach.

In the immortal words of Ambassador Kosh from the TV show Babylon 5, "The Avalanche has started and it is too late for the pebbles to vote."

Ta,

I'm a Bigger Totalitarian Than You Are!

Props to the Lone Mantis for putting me in touch with this one as I don't read the daily campus bird-cage liner unless I've nothing else to do when in the men's room.

The thing of evil that is HB 0837 cannot be underestimated. The sponsor of the bill, one Dennis Baxley R-Ocala, is so worried about students not getting the full truth, whatever that is that...

While promoting the bill Tuesday, Baxley said a university education should be more than “one biased view by the professor, who as a dictator controls the classroom,” as part of “a misuse of their platform to indoctrinate the next generation with their own views.”

So, to combat these little dictators Baxley himself will act as dictator by forcing them to present other ideas or views. I guess he doesn't like the idea of someone else having control over something he knows nothing about. He's a funeral parlor operator after all, not an instructor at a university, who holds a degree in a field that is incapable of generating any imperical data.

Students in public univeristies in Florida would have the right (RIGHT!) to sue a professor who was not respecting the student's beliefs (read creationism), singling them out in class to answer a question, making an off-hand remark that might offend someone's sensibilities (Homosexuals have higher time preference), or grading them based on perceived ideological bias. Instructors could sue the universities for not granting them tenure. This is just more Affirmative Action nonsense. The language of the bill is a complete mess, with vague terminology that will do nothing more thna clog up the court system with nonsensical lawsuits. The chilling effect on what is and is not said in a classroom will be unbelievable.

Now, don't get me wrong. Much of the above happens all the time on college campuses. I had a friend fail a course in American History for arguing the Anti-Federalist side of the ratification of the constitution because the instructor disagreed with her premise (not, mind you, that she didn't adequately back up her premise). I have another friend who almost did not graduate because of one instructor's vendetta against him that started with a philosophical disagreement. All of these things suck, no doubt.

If Rep. Baxley is appalled at the preponderance of leftists on Florida college campuses then remove their power base. The Florida legislature is one the sources of this problem, the Federal government is another. The unwieldy, unresponsive slush fund that is the modern education system in America is the source of the problem coupled with the already indecipherable and conflicting legislation governing it.

This is another example of the Mogambo's wisdom: "More of what is killing you is the cure."

Ta,

Mission Accomplished.

When I started this blog last summer I did so with a particular goal in mind. I wanted to get an article published on LRC. Simple and direct. I wanted to join the ranks of people whose work has had such a huge effect on my life in the past few years. Hubris? maybe. Mostly it was just a desire to see if I could do it. My thinking was that I needed to spend time putting words down on paper both to hone my rhetorical skills in a public setting and make the process habitual. I tend to flit from one interest/hobby to the next without becoming excellent at any one thing so creating the habit was of particular importance.

On top of that was the inherent doubt that I was writing anything of quality. So, my insecurity led me down this path, as opposed to just writing an article and then submitting it to Mr. Rockwell for his approval, where I started with nothing with nobody (save Capt. Charity Vain) in view. It was a big step for me, actually. I tend to not want to show people my work and am just uncomfortable with either praise or rejection. I was very careful when I was writing poetry, showing my work to only a few of my closest friends. So, with the blog started (and no earthly idea of how to promote it) I started putting words on the page.

After a two month hiatus, where I was getting no traffic whatsoever (In hindsight that was no shock... I had no presence anywhere else. One must do some amount of advertising to grab eyeballs.), I came back with a different approach. I decided to embrace the community and find my niche in it. I went in search of resources to promote my blog (Technorati, Feedburner, Blogshares), joined a blogging association, and *gasp* even at one point joined a tit-for-tat browsing community.One day I perused Blogger's list of 'Recently Updated Blogs' and found one called The Econoclast....

... and it all went down hill from there. I posted a couple of comments in his most excellent blog, and he began reading my work and constantly linking in to my site. For this I am both very grateful and humbled. He deserves a lot of credit for the amount of traffic I get here (Thanks John!).

Some other people who have done my a great service are Tex at UnfairWitness, Tom Knapp at Knappster and the Libertarian Jackass, who picked up one of my articles about Tom Palmer's smear tactics and brought a boatload of eyeballs here.

This Oscar speech is important because without that kind of positive feedback (accurate pricing information) I would never have gotten the courage to finally e-mail Lew Rockwell yesterday for his submission requirements. I am many things: libertarian, husband, egoist, ex-smoker/bassist/poet, bad drummer, consummate asshole, to scratch the surface. But, one thing I am not is confident of my ability to produce quality. I don't mind wasting my time noodling and experimenting, but I'm acutely sensitive to wasting other's with my doing so.

With all that said, I'd like to welcome those of you who have come here from this morning's piece at LRC, and welcome back my (all 3 of you)normal readership. Now, I just have to figure out how to keep the first group of y'all coming back!

Ta,

Of Guns and Pogo Sticks: The Limits of Trespassing

Tom Knapp is quite the guy. Period. This is an absolutely fantastic piece on the limits of property and how one's right to ownership interacts with another's.

Knapp uses the 2nd Amendment's guarantee ot keep and bear arms as his example. Stephan Kinsella years ago on LRC used similar arguments to prove that intellectual property was an oxymoron(see articles here and here) So, for me, this has been a settled issue for a long time.

Ta,

The LP Pledge: Should it Go?

Here in Alachua County our local LP affiliate has a yahoo group for discussion. And, after a recent speech by Chuck Muth at the LP of California's convention, a discussion during an LPF committee meeting of whether the pledge that one must take to be an LP member should be maintained arose.

Our former chair of the LPAC and current secretary of the LPF, Ray Roberts posted the following up as a potential replacement for the current LP pledge:

"I believe that force should only be used to protect life, liberty, and property."

I propose the statement above as an improved Libertarian Pledge that is less ambiguous and more accurate than the current pledge.

It has advantages:
· It's a positive rather than a negative statement. This is what we believe.
· The word "only" makes it clear that force should not be used for any other purposes (unambiguous).
· It presents the fundamental rights we value... life, liberty, and property.
· It should be acceptable to all "flavors" of Libertarians.
· It doesn't forbid tax-supported limited government (accurate).
· It's much easier to remember.
· It's almost short enough to put on a long bumper sticker. :)

Let's make the Pledge something we can all support, promote, and remember. Let's change the pledge!

Ray's got an entire article here which further explains his points.

Now, this post is not here to support Ray's idea. Actually, it's quite the contrary. Normally, I would engage in a point by point refutation of Ray's argument, but this time Capt. Charity Vain beat me to it.

These are the high points (C. Vain's comments are in bold):

>• It presents the fundamental rights we value...
>life, liberty, and property.

The oath isn't about rights, it's about principle.
Think about it, it is meaningless to take an oath
proclaiming what your rights are. Would you ever lie
about what you think your rights are? Would it matter?

or

• It's much easier to remember.

So is 'I like pie!' but that doesn't mean it should be
the oath. Oaths are not to be taken lightly, and
shouldn't be judged for brevity.

Now, you tell me.... Do I have the coolest wife in the world or not?

This is also not to demean Ray's efforts here, just that the proposed solution is not a good one. Ray is a damn fine advocate for the cause and is working extremely hard in whatever way he can to improve things. He just ended a two-year stint as chair of the LPAC and we never had a better one. Capt. C. Vain and I are both Chair Emeriti. I don't know what the answer to this problem is, but I know that the above pledge is not acceptable.

Ta,

Follow Up: Florida HB1223 Lobbying Report

HB1223 (the Senate version is SB2180) is in committee and I got an update from LPF V-Chair Walt Augustinowicz on it last night. The link above contains both the bill itself and my commentary on the things of interest. For those readers here in Florida please make a point to call, e-mail or fax a couple of the people on the committee along with your state rep./senator.

Rep. Arza 850-488-1683 (Comm.Chair) Rep. Pickens 850-488-0665 (Comm. V-Chair) fax: 850-413-7330 Rep. Ausley 850-488-0965 fax: 850-488-3336 Rep. Bogdanoff 850-488-0635 Rep. Farkas 850-488-5719 Rep. Gottlieb 850-488-0145 Rep. Murzin 850-488-8278 Rep. Richardson 850-488-1798 fax: 850-922-2096 Rep. Traveisa 850-488-9910

You can get relevant information here about your Reps./Senators here. If you don't know who your representatives in Tallahassee are then go here first.

If we make a bit of noise in the next couple of weeks we can make this a reality. Imagine high school teachers actually having to discuss concepts such as nullification and federalism. The horror!

Ta,

P.S. This is what I wrote to Dwight Stansel, my rep:

I would like you to consider putting your considerable standing within the Florida House to use in favor of HB1223. I believe it is important that our educational system dispense facts and not ideology. There are too many good lessons available in the History of American that we are currently not taking advantage of.

I urge you strongly to do what you can to make sure this bill does not die in committee.